"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss
Topic: Business
1:51 pm EDT, Mar 21, 2008
It's not so much that there's something special about founders as that there's something missing in the lives of employees.
Australian Man Gunned Down in Driveway by Killer Robot
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:24 am EDT, Mar 21, 2008
It all raises challenging questions about life and choice. There's also the question of responsibility. Jack Kevorkian can be put in jail. But is there anyone to punish in the case of a machine built for self-termination?
You're supposed to raise your standard of living by working harder, being clever, earning more income -- not by using your long-term savings. And now this current generation is pretty much fucked. When push comes to shove and they go to take money out of their houses at retirement time, they’re going to find out that there ain’t a whole lot there. They better pray that Social Security is still around in 20 years -– not exactly a sure thing.
There is the other shoe. I hadn't considered that. These people won't be able to retire! Millions of them, across the social strata. They'll have a huge house and a BMW and no retirement savings. They'll all be depending on Social Security at exactly the moment when Social Security becomes insolvent.
This essay makes another interesting point:
But you look at what FEMA did after Katrina, and you wonder, "Who’s running the ship?" This disaster is more of the same -- only it is much, much worse than New Orleans.
We saw a complete abdication of responsibility by the regulatory supervisors who oversee banking and lending institutions.
Basically, we've got more incompetent Bush Administration appointees. This is beginning, for me, to be a core reason why I don't think I'll be able to vote for McCain no matter what I think of his policy positions vis-a-vis the Democratic nominee -- its still the Republican party, and the Republican party appears to be completely infested with rubes who can't do their jobs. This keeps coming up in context after context. Unfortunately, only Hillary seems to have made an issue out of it, and ironically so as she is perceived as being part of the culture of corruption too.
BBC NEWS | Magazine | World's best-known protest symbol turns 50
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:30 pm EDT, Mar 20, 2008
It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.
Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born.
America was conned - who will pay? | Business | The Guardian
Topic: Business
12:43 pm EDT, Mar 20, 2008
It is somewhat surprising that there is not already rioting in the streets, given the gigantic fraud perpetrated by the financial elite at the expense of ordinary Americans.
The US has just had its weakest period of expansion since the 1950s. Consumption growth has been poor. Investment growth has been modest. Exports have been sluggish. But if you are at the top of the tree, the years since the last recession in 2001 has been a veritable golden age. Salaries for executives have rocketed and profits have soared, because the productivity gains from a growing economy have been disproportionately skewed towards capital.
For ordinary Americans, though, it has been a different story. Real wages have been growing slowly; at just 1.6% a year on average over the latest upswing, well down on the experience of earlier decades. Business, of course, needs consumers to carry on spending in order to make money, so a way had to be found to persuade households to do their patriotic duty. The method chosen was simple. Whip up a colossal housing bubble, convince consumers that it makes sense to borrow money against the rising value of their homes to supplement their meagre real wage growth and watch the profits roll in.
As they did - for a while. Now it's payback time and the mood could get very ugly. Americans, to put it bluntly, have been conned.
This, I think, is a realistic perspective. See my rant here.
Oh, the things that get posted to Memestreams that you miss and then happen upon while drunk and trying to dig up a link you forgot. Be sure to watch the replies...
A report by the Financial Times (registration required) cites unnamed executives who say that Apple is in talks with record labels to offer access to the entire iTunes music library for a lump sum price. The fee would be added as a premium option on an iPod or iPhone, or it could come as a monthly charge. It would allow downloading of any song at any time so long as the purchaser still owns the device, and the songs would be yours to keep.
Did Apple finally figure out that digital information is not like phonographs?
Copyfighters beat down Tennessee bill - Boing Boing
Topic: Intellectual Property
5:23 pm EDT, Mar 19, 2008
Copyfighters in Tennessee have scored a massive win, defanging a crappy, RIAA-written state bill:
I agree. The final text of the bill was far more reasonable than the one originally proposed. If you called, wrote, or joined this protest thank you for making a difference.
